Jayalalithaa death probe: Apollo names officials who asked CCTV footages to be switched off

Apollo submits a five-page affidavit on why CCTV were off in Jaya case

CHENNAI: The Apollo Hospitals Group has submitted an affidavit to the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry naming four officials-including state Inspector-General of Police-Intelligence KN Sathiyamurthy-as the officials who had directed the hospital to switch off surveillance cameras that could recorded movement of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa inside the hospital.

A person aware of the contents of the affidavit told ET: "Sathiyamurthy's name figures among the four officials whom Apollo has identified as the people who wanted the CCTVs off." adding.

However, Sathiyamurthy in a deposition earlier, had maintained that he was not aware of the video equipment being switched off, besides claiming that the security systems around Jayalalithaa had not recorded in a register the people who had entered the hospital to visit Jayalalithaa. The former chief minister Jayalalithaa was treated on the second floor of the Apollo Hospitals unit.

In March this year, Apollo Group Chairman Prathap Reddy had told reporters that CCTV Cameras were not available as they were switched off.

The Arumughaswamy Commission had written to the hospital group seeking submission of video footages related to the period AIADMK J Jayalalithaa had stayed in the Greams Road, Chennai unit of the hospital group between September and December 2016. Appearing before the Commission, Subbiah Viswanathan, Chief Operating Officer of Apollo, had submitted that certain government officials, he was told, had requested that the cameras be switched off.

Sources within the Commission believed that the cameras could have recorded movement of other people on corridors from vantage points, leaving alone the fact that the equipment were switched off when Jayalalithaa was to be moved around in the hospital. However, Apollo Hospitals had said in a letter that the data servers are overwritten once in about a month, rendering it incapable of producing any footage recorded two yeats ago.

The Arumughaswamy Commission, according to people aware of developments, has sought another a extension of three months to finish compelting inquiries. It was supposed to file its report by October 24.